Acquittal

George Zimmerman's acquittal was unjustified as self-defense ("Martin verdict protests continue," July 17). In Mr. Zimmerman's 911 call about Trayvon Martin, the dispatcher told him to stay in his car while police sped to the scene. He ignored this advice and got out of his car. Armed with his gun, Mr. Zimmerman approached Trayvon Martin. Mr. Martin became the threatened party, acted in self-defense - and died trying to save his life. Frederick E. Knowles, Chestertown

A string of acquittals for a man accused of raping several Baltimore women has renewed a debate over whether the law should be changed to help prosecutors secure sex offense convictions. Nelson Bernard Clifford, 35, has been cleared in four trials in Baltimore City Circuit Court since 2011. Each time his accusers have testified, but Clifford has said in court that all his encounters were consensual. Prosecutors have attempted in various ways to show juries a pattern, but have been stymied by city judges, who have rejected attempts by prosecutors to join separate cases together, or to call witnesses to testify about assaults other than the one being tried.

George Zimmerman's acquittal was unjustified as self-defense ("Martin verdict protests continue," July 17). In Mr. Zimmerman's 911 call about Trayvon Martin, the dispatcher told him to stay in his car while police sped to the scene. He ignored this advice and got out of his car. Armed with his gun, Mr. Zimmerman approached Trayvon Martin. Mr. Martin became the threatened party, acted in self-defense - and died trying to save his life. Frederick E. Knowles, Chestertown

MOSCOW - In a sign of the growing influence of the security services, Russia's Supreme Court reinstated yesterday an espionage case against a physicist accused of selling research data that other scholars say was gathered from public sources. A jury in his hometown in Siberia had acquitted Valentin Danilov, 55, in December of charges that he sold top-secret information about the effects of solar radiation on satellites to a company in China. But prosecutors appealed the verdict, and yesterday the high court overturned it. The justices ruled that the scientist's trial was marked by procedural violations, including improper discussion of the case by jurors and the use of inadmissible evidence by the defense.

An attorney for Eric D. Stennett says he is being unfairly singled out for federal prosecution on a relatively routine drug-and-gun case because of his high-profile acquittal in state court in the death of a Baltimore police officer. In raising the claim of selective prosecution, attorney Charles M. Curtis has asked a federal judge to order the U.S. attorney's office to turn over notes of any conversations with the city's top police official and prosecutor as well as with the mayor. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake scheduled a hearing for this morning on Stennett's request - what would be a first step in defense efforts to have the federal charges dismissed on grounds that the 19-year-old Baltimore man was intentionally treated differently from other defendants.

A federal judge yesterday ordered Eric D. Stennett jailed until his trial on drug and weapons charges, saying that the teen-ager who was acquitted last year in the death of a city police officer could pose a significant risk to the community if he were released from jail. U.S. Magistrate Judge James K. Bredar said that Stennett's high-profile acquittal in the death of Officer Kevon M. Gavin was not a factor in his decision to deny bail. But that earlier case loomed large yesterday as Stennett's attorneys began outlining a defense that will scrutinize the actions of city officers in bringing the new case.

F. Irvin Dymond,83, the New Orleans lawyer who won an acquittal for businessman Clay Shaw in the John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy trial fictionalized by moviemaker Oliver Stone, died of cancer Saturday in New Orleans.Mona May Karff,86, a seven-time U.S. women's chess champion and one of the first four Americans to attain the rank of international woman master in chess, died Jan. 10 in New York.Pub Date: 1/21/98

Maybe SLY actually meant sly.If Senator Young's acquittal had come a few months earlier, he would be our next mayor.Bradley is there if Gore won't do. Likewise, McCain will be standing there when Bush stumbles.The new television season has shows about grown-ups! Market research discovered that's who has nothing better to do nights than watch.Pub Date: 9/29/99

By a bare majority (51 percent vs. 48 percent), callers to SUNDIAL say justice did not prevail in the jury's acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney King. The registered opinions were 661 to 623 from 1,284 callers."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically, as a scientific public opinion poll would be.

Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney denied Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold's request for acquittal on all charges in his misconduct trial, clearing the way for closing arguments Tuesday. The defense rested today after calling a total of three witnesses: two doctors to testify to Leopold's health in 2010, and the county personnel director, who said she processed Leopold's requests to give some of his pay back to the county. Leopold's attorneys also entered his health records into evidence after asking Sweeney to seal them to preserve his privacy as a patient.

Defense requests for an early end to the trial of two brothers accused of assaulting a teen in Northwest Baltimore were denied by a Baltimore circuit judge Tuesday afternoon. After the state rested its case around 3 p.m., Baltimore Circuit Judge Pamela White determined that Assistant State's Attorney Kevin Wiggins had presented adequate evidence to support the charges against defendants Avi and Eliyahu Werdesheim. "I am satisfied that there has been [evidence] sufficient to support verdicts on all three counts as to both defendants," said White.

The father of twins acquitted of animal cruelty charges Wednesday criticized the investigation that left the young men behind bars for nearly three years, but the state's attorney's office said there were no regrets in retrying the dog-burning case. "The police are supposed to be protecting," Charles Johnson said Thursday. He reiterated arguments from defense lawyers that the brothers were wrongfully identified as suspects. But a spokesman for State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein said the decision was made to retry the case in part because all but one juror agreed to convict the brothers in the first trial.

A spray-paint artist arrested last year was found not guilty Friday of peddling without a permit at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, a ruling that left the defendant without an opportunity to argue the free-speech issues he says are at the heart of the case. District Judge George M. Lipman said prosecutors failed to prove their allegations because police officers never saw Mark Chase sell his paintings. In effect, the judge ruled the officers arrested the artist too soon, while he was setting up and before he had made a sale.

By Michael Dresser and Annie Linskey, The Baltimore Sun | November 9, 2011

A leading government watchdog organization has called on the Maryland Senate to censure state Sen. Ulysses Currie, the once-powerful budget committee chairman who was acquitted of political corruption charges this week. Susan Wichmann, executive director of Maryland Common Cause, said Wednesday that the Prince George's County Democrat deserves punishment for his failure to disclose his employment by Shoppers Food Warehouse at a time when he was intervening with state officials on the grocery chain's behalf.

By Tricia Bishop and Tricia Bishop,tricia.bishop@baltsun.com | August 26, 2009

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury acquitted the first of a half-dozen defendants to be tried in the death of a 14-year-old boy who was shot to death last year while riding his bicycle in Brooklyn as part of an alleged payback conspiracy. Lawrence Lewis, 47, said he was in the van with the killer and rode along while the crime was committed, but he didn't know what was happening and therefore wasn't culpable. "I was stuck, they was my ride," he testified last week. The jury acquitted him Friday.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court jury deliberating the fate of a doctor charged with raping three women in separate attacks told the judge yesterday that they were "hopelessly deadlocked," and the judge declared a mistrial.As soon as the jury left the courtroom, Assistant State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger withdrew the rape charges against Dr. Leonard C. Harris, saying he didn't want to put the victims through another trial.Mr. Shellenberger said Harris, 37, is likely to serve a substantial prison sentence anyway, on his conviction last week for kidnapping, assault, housebreaking, and fleeing a police officer in another case.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush walked a fine line yesterday between joining national outrage over the acquittal of four police officers in the Los Angeles beating case and finding greater fault with the rioters who took out their frustration through lethal violence.It was a balancing act that reflects competing demands on the president from his conservative political base and leaders of the black community who say he is insensitive to police brutality."We tried to be equal . . . but eight people are dead," the White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said before the death toll had climbed higher.

By Nick Madigan and Nick Madigan,nick.madigan@baltsun.com | April 30, 2009

A Baltimore police officer and his wife, accused in February of stealing more than $1,000 worth of merchandise from a Wal-Mart store in Owings Mills, have been found not guilty in Baltimore County District Court. The 44-year-old officer, Robert H. Gordon, a 16-year veteran of the force, and his wife, Daniella A. Gordon, 41, were arrested on Feb. 17 after the incident at the store, where security guards told police they observed the couple concealing items under clothing in a shopping cart.

By Melissa Harris and Melissa Harris,melissa.harris@baltsun.com | March 22, 2009

A man accused of attempting to kill two undercover Baltimore police officers in 2005 was acquitted by a city jury of all charges last week - four years after a judge declared a mistrial in the case because a juror said she had made up her mind from the start. After the mistrial, federal and Baltimore prosecutors divided the case against William Floyd Crudup, sending ammunition and drug-possession charges to the federal courts. Crudup, 29, is now serving 11 years in federal prison for possessing 12 bags of cocaine when he was arrested in the March 2005 double shooting on Elmley Avenue.